"The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom
of religion and conscience." - May 1948)

Every so often, Hiddush receives requests for assistance from outside of Israel. One recent appeal is particularly interesting and important, and we will continue to report on it again as it develops.

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The Nation-state Law has captured the headlines for quite some time now, culminating in its adoption by the Knesset yesterday. There are a number of facets to this bill, which should be highlighted as far as matters of religion-state and Israel-Diaspora relations are concerned.

An important reaffirmation of Hiddush's assertion that addressing the challenge of religious freedom & equality requires a more comprehensive, systemic, proactive, and bold overhauling was published this month by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in its sixth periodic report on Israel.

At a conference of the American-Israeli community in Washington, the Deputy Foreign Minister said that non-Orthodox Judaism is not accepted in Israel. Director of the Reform movement: "Hotovely joins the wild campaign of incitement that has been going on in recent months against Reform Judaism."

Next week the Knesset Special Committee on the Nation-State Bill (formally, 'Basic Law: Israel - The Nation-State of the Jewish People') will be deliberating on the revised draft bill, which was initiated by fourteen MKs from the Likud, Jewish Home, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Kulanu parties.

The discriminatory Ritual Bath bill proposed by MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni and his colleagues, which will ban the non-Orthodox movements from using Israel's publicly funded mikva'ot for conversion ceremonies was formally passed into law on Monday night, July 25.

Yated Ne'eman is the newspaper of the Degel HaTorah party, which sits in PM Netanyahu's Coalition. They think of Reform Jews as donkeys, and of the Supreme Court as a dangerous political player, which equates "true" Judaism with donkeys posing as Jews.

Last week, Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau publicly rebuked Naftali Bennett, Israel’s minister of education and Diaspora affairs. Bennett’s religious sin, per Lau, was visiting the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, and tweeting an enthusiastic reflection of the school and the love for Israel and Judaism that he had seen there.

It is difficult to conceive of a greater contradiction than that between Chief Rabbi David Lau’s outrageous statement last week, lashing out at Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s visit to the Conservative Movement’s Schechter School in Manhattan, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s welcome declaration at last month’s General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, where he stated that he would “ensure that all Jews – Reform, Conservative and Orthodox – feel at home in Israel.”

The American Jewish Committee brought together leaders and scholars from America and Israel to form a strategic path towards freedom of religion in Israel and equality between Israeli and Diaspora Jewry.

Israel's Chief Rabbinate disregards and disrespects Jewish leaders and their communities around the world. Israel must end their monopoly and embrace its promise for “freedom of religion and conscience... and equality” as a blueprint for a modern democratic Jewish state.

In the past few months, thanks to cooperative efforts between Hiddush and other like-minded organizations in Israel and America, the issue of freedom of marriage has been extensively covered in Israeli and international media.

As more Jewish organizations and communities in Israel and the Diapsora work together to promote freedom of marriage in Israel, the greater the chances that Israeli policymakers will understand the need for civil marriage in Israel.